Amanda Knox Giving First Television Interview – During Sweeps

Amanda Knox is releasing her book about being convicted of murdering her roommate who was found half naked in a pool of blood in Italy and then later having her conviction overturned on appeal. Despite being out of jail since October 2011, she has never given a television interview until now. When she was first released, paps were following her, but that has died down considerably and she has been living a pretty quiet life. That is about to change. Diane Sawyer will interview her and of course it will be during sweeps on April 30th. Amber's book is called Waiting To Be Heard.

That she is being painted as a victim is a second act of violence to the victim and her family. Knox's family and their PR machine has succeeded in using American stereotypes of European (and especially Italian) (in)justice to control how this story was disseminated. There's no doubt that this case was mishandled, but would Casey Anthony's tell-all book be greeted with this kind of sympathy?

@Erin and @greenmountaingal, I never followed this case closely, but I really thought that it had been mishandled and she had nothing to do with it. What do you know/think? (I love reading about intrigue).

I think she knew more than she let on but I don't think she participated in the murder. I don't think any weird sex acts happened. I think her and her boyfriend were smoking a lot of pot and got caught in the middle of something awful.

I don't know a ton about this case, but something about Amanda Knox and her boyfriend seemed off to me. Her behavior and lies after the murder just didnt sit well with me. I think, like Casey Anthony, she's a sociopath and played the victim very well. Is it terrible to say that something in her eyes tells me she's sinister? I don't know. Things just don't add up for me when it comes to Amanda Knox.

Amanda and her family suffered pain too. Yes, she is alive and now home but she spent 3 years unjustly imprisoned in a strange country, her parents mortgaged their future tosave her and be with herr, she will, for the rest of her life have people believing she got away with something (she looks happy she got away with murder!)…she deserves to get something back and she also deserves to have her story told.

I'm with those who feel there is something off with the story. I don't think Diane Sawyer is going to be the hard-hitting journalist who gets answers to the questions that people have–she is pretty soft with her big interviews. It needs someone tough like one of the 60 Minutes guys or Katie Couric—it will just be a promo for them to sell the book.

She suffered? Ridiculous! These comments are a reflection of the well-oiled machine responsable for what information was made available here in the US. To begin with, she changed her official story three times: first she said she was at her boyfriend's, then she said she was maybe at her apartment, then she said that she was there and heard a struggle (but she still wasn't sure because it "all seemed like a dream"). She randomly implicated a completely innocent man who was brought in in a second because, sadly, he was a minority and the European justice system is no less susceptible to racist preconceptions (he was let go when it became clear that he had NOTHING to do with it, other than being her boss). First she said that she was abused by Italian police, and then dropped that story right away (during the same time she went for the "was it all a dream?" statement). The morning of the crime, there are records of her and her boyfriend buying bleach and they went back to the apartment and scrubbed down most of the apartment (but oddly enough, they claim not to have known Meredith was in the bedroom dead). Anyone familiar with Perugia knows that you have to really really want to buy something to find a place open on Saturday morning at 7am. The evidence was undoubtedly mishandled, and there is a ton of circumstantial evidence against her–but was the Casey Anthony acquittal an example of a triumph of the American justice system? No, I don't think anyone would say it was, and neither was this. I, too, was sure she was going to be let off, but because of the power of American diplomacy to bully the Italians. All of the above information was public domain in Italy, but you won't hear any of it here. And now she needs to "get something out of it"? Disgusting.

@Erin, you left out that those statements were made after she was being interrogated for 8 hours overnight with no food, water, or lawyer. In total she was interrogated for over 50 hours in a matter of 5 days. The whole interrogation process on Amanda was completely illegal.

@PuggleWug and !LottaColada No one is saying that investigators did not drop the ball. But it's pretty obvious that she's guilty. The two things are not mutually exclusive. (That's why I cited the Casey Anthony case…whether they dropped the ball or did not have enough of the right kind of evidence against her doesn't mean that she didn't do it. When it came out that she might have a book deal, everyone was up in arms about it, saying that it was gross she should profit from the situation. The rest of the *world* (or at least Europe) considers this the case. Enough with her being the victim.

Since this story broke, I've been fascinated by how Brits think she's guilty as sin, and Americans think she's basically innocent (though far from spotless). It just goes to show how well the media can shape public opinion on both sides.

I won't be reading her book, or watching her interview. The fact that she accused an innocent man of this crime is despicable. The fact that her victim's DNA was found on a knife at her boyfriend's place is enough for me to consider her another Casey Anthony. It angers me that as Americans we require foreigners to respect and abide by our legal system, yet we refuse to do the same for other countries. Italy's DNA standards may not be on par with ours, but it's THEIR country, THEIR legal system, and by choosing to live in their country she accepted their laws/legal system.

It isn't "obvious" that she's guilty. The only thing obvious to me is that the police mishandled the case. If an interrogation is done for the sole purpose of making someone say what you want them to say, regardless of accuracy, then that can be achieved through hours of relentless interrogation. This is especially easy when the person being interrogated is young, scared, unsure of their rights, isolated from any advocates or other support, and allowing their words to possibly be twisted in ways they don't understand will be "on the record" and used against them forever.

There was a case in Oklahoma years ago, written about in the book "Dreams of Ada," and referenced in John Grisham's book, "An Innocent Man," where a suspect in a murder who was young and kind of simple minded, was interrogated for hours about the disappearance of a woman. He got worn down and the police finally asked him, "If you could dream she was dead, where do you think her body would be? What do you think she'd be wearing? Just say something so we can write something down and you can go home." So he did. He played the, "If I dreamed it" game so he could go home. Instead, that was used as his confession and he's now in prison for life, been there over 20 years now. The woman's body was found many years after the conviction, miles away from his dream guess, in completely different clothes. Oh, and about those clothes, her family didn't know what she was wearing when she disappeared, so from looking in her apartment there were several shirts they knew of but couldn't find. The suspect was given those specific clothing descriptions to choose from for his "dream." Nice, huh?

I think the only honest answer from anyone who wasn't there is, "I don't know if she's guilty or not."

There are too many people who think they can detect guilt or innocence, or good and evil, by the look in someone's eyes. That's why juries mist follow certain rules, to weed out that utter nitwittery. Thank goodness.

Opinions are one thing, but some folks seem to think an opinion is the same as a fact!

I just read the wikipedia account of this and I don't know what to think. The police in Italy definitely f'd the investigation up, destroying her boyfriends computer, interviewing her as a witness and not a suspect, so there's no recordings of her statements, she had no lawyer present, etc. It could have been an intruder/rapist, but the window broken was twelve feet off the ground above a smooth wall. Not super likely that someone's going to hop in to it. I think it was some kind of a fight between the two girls, and the boyfriend. Or it could have been an intruder, the investigation was so botched, we'll never know. I don't think that Amanda Knox did it, she's a positive thinking, yoga stretching, college student from Seattle. I just don't see it. That's my opinion.

Okay, but if we take the "no one will ever know" route, what's the point of any trial? There was a preponderance of material evidence (gathered in a way that was deemed unacceptable) and the psychological profile fit (or maybe buying bleach at 7am…yeah, most college students do that, I"m sure there's a reasonable explanation for that; and how they kicked the window in to make it look like a break-in. Oh…did you never hear about any of those "details" in the US press?

Okay…how about: she may or may not be as guilty as Casey Anthony and either profiting from murder is grotesque.

@Anna Nonymous Geez!…saying "she's a positive thinking, yoga stretching, college student from Seattle" is about as helpful as "she's got a funny look about her, of course she's guilty"! Or were you being funny?

I didn't pay much attention to the trial at the time, but I become weirdly interested in it last year when Amanda's retrial was happening. Since I didn't really know anything about it, I decided to read all I could. I went in with only a vague sense that she was guilty – but no real knowledge about the case, or any strong feelings either way, certainly not about the Italian court system or anything else. After a few days of intense reading on it, my thoughts were that she knows somethings, might have even been present, but did not kill the woman.

A man named Rudy Guede was also convicted of the crime – and he was the only person who was linked to the scene by actual forensic evidence. His fingerprints were at the scene, his DNA was on and inside the victim, and his handprint IN THE VICTIM'S BLOOD was found on her pillow, underneath her body. He fled the country in the days following the murder.

Yes, Amanda made some weird and contradictory statements, but that was after intense interrogations spanning days with no access to food, water, a lawyer, or knowing anything about her rights. There was also some overzealous prosecution going on, including the charming assertion that because she bought lingerie with her boyfriend clearly she was a demonic, sex-crazed murder. Yep, ladies, lacy thongs = satanic killings.

I don't remember all the details I read (it's been a year) but I came away with a pretty strong belief that Amanda was probably into some shady things (drugs) and probably knows more than she said, but I don't think she killed anyone.

@Livia Maybe the haze will clear with the book deal and the truth will come to light?

PS All of you who read up on the case and are outraged on her behalf are bilingual, right? Again, back to the point about the proceedings and details that were lost (or incorrectly reported) in translation, as well as the fact that her family's PR person (yes) had a huge hand in the way the information was reported.

Livia: You forgot they found Rudy Guede's poo, too.Erin: I agree with you– I have never seen anything on the bleach issue in any article in the US. I think the 'Foxy Knoxy' thing was unfortunate for her, but there are many more things that point to her (her fighting with Meredith), the lying that Erin pointed out….

And I agree with the other poster who said none of KNOW, one way or the other, who is actually guilty. I just don't think it's "obvious" that she is guilty. Especially since, at her release, the Italian judicial panel stated there was no concrete evidence to show Amanda's guilt, and the case had been grossly mishandled.

I stated my opinion after reading about the case, but it's just that: an opinion. Just like your (seemingly rather vehement) assertions are merely your opinion.

And Knox had a smear campaign against her in the papers in Perugia! You act as though only Americans are having their opinions tweaked by media. You have your opinion, but it will not change mine. The girl was railroaded.

@Livia. I was being facetious about the haze under which she's been operating clearing for the book deal …

In Italy it was reported (I don't know, but probably not confirmed) that Hillary Clinton put A LOT of pressure on the system to exonerate her; that, together with the media attention and the mishandling of the evidence and the financial issues at stake (…you have no idea how much revenue is generated by kids studying abroad in Italy and especially Perugia) makes it unsurprising that the "final verdict" was that they didn't have enough to hold her.

Hillary Clinton may or may not have put pressure on the case, women who where sexy underwear may or may not be into satanic ritualistic killings, the US may or may not want to prove the Italian system is flawed, the Italians may or may not have something to prove to the overbearing Americans by convicting one of their citizens by any means necessary, the fact that Amanda is attractive, or has "a look" about her may or may not be a definitive indicator of murderous tendencies, the Italian system may or may not be a bedrock of dispassionate justice (if only to piss of jingoistic Americans) or it may be easily swayed by the Americans and the Media and convinced to let murderers go free, and on and on and on.

In the end, one person's DNA, fingerprints, and handprints were found at the crime scene and on the body: Rudy Guede. And he is currently serving time for the murder.

I did read this morning that Meredith's father believes she should have gotten more exposure, since she is the undisputed victim in this case, and her memory is all but forgotten. I disagree with him. If she had been investigated as thorougly as the press pursues any salacious story, any beauty and brightness left in his memory would have been soured by whatever crazy stories the press could've dug up. She's better off being remembered only by those who truly knew her and loved her.

When Knox's conviction was overturned, Italians outside of the courthouse were whistling like crazy. This was reported in the States as a form of approval – in reality, whistling is a sign of outrage and anger. The Americans have always wanted to paint Knox as a victim, but the only real victim was the murdered girl and her family, who didn't have a PR machine behind them. Oh, and also the poor guy that Knox tried to screw over with her false accusations.

The interrogaters brought up the man's name, to rope him in with the murder, not Knox. Many of those whistling outside of the courthouse were more than likely influenced by the biased newspapers that painted her as a satanic murderer.

@Erin, you act as if the United States is the only country trying to manipulate public image. You don't think the Italians were scrambling like hell to cover their asses and make her seem guilty *after* they realized they had no hard evidence? Doing drugs, looking creepy, acting silly and lying in an illegal interrogation are NOT evidence. Another man's handprint, made in the victim's blood, and on her pillow? His DNA on the clasp of her bra? THAT is evidence.

I don't know if she is guilty or not, but you clearly have as biased an opinion as anyone else on this blog.

@PuggleWug I thought you've been saying all along how to we know for certain any of this? How do you know the investigators brought up his name? I never heard that, and after she recanted that part of her statement said she was sorry and that he just popped into her mind.…And all I was trying to say was that the case was reported in such a wildly different way here. It would seem that these biased Italians aren't alone…

Also, Amanda Knox was absolutely ripped to shreds here in the US when she was being questioned and throughout her first trial. A fairly attractive young woman killing her roommate? She was proclaimed a murderer on the cover of every major magazine and news program. It was not until she was up for appeal that most of us saw the incredibly unethical and dishonest means used to convict her.

Good god Erin, you continue to say it is obvious she is guilty. Obvious how? You have proof? The newspapers had a smear campaign against Knox, so of course the locals were biased, since all they read was the opinion of the "journalists". You continually point out that Americans think a certain way based on the media. So did the Italians! The only difference is, you think the Italians are correct in their judgement, do you have no issue with it.

You apparently know how all of those around the world feel about the case, and that is that she is guilty. Good for them. I still don't agree.

I have been fascinated by this case, as well. I really resist when entities try to manipulate me into an opinion that goes along with their agenda. I don't like being manipulated. I'll make up my own mind. Knox's family hired a PR firm that directed their actions. Donald Trump got involved and lent his aid. The Italians were made to look like buffoons. When in fact, they are not. The DNA went off to a highly competent specialist in Rome: both prosecution and defense were invited to attend the testing. Defense chose not to come as a maneuver so they could later cry "foul", which they did. The coroner found that, given her wounds as they were, she would have to have been attacked by more than one person. He said there had to have been more than one person present. The police used luminol to check for blood stains remaining even after the clean up. Both Amanda and her boyfriend left blood stains in the apartment. Amanda was using drugs. There was an issue of money having been taken from Meredith: she and Amanda Knox argued about it. Amanda and Solecito were not declared innocent; it was merely stated that there was not enough to convict them at their appeal. Now, the Prosecution gets to appeal to the Supreme Court of Italy, and that will be in March or April. I was fascinated by this, so I delved deeper, and read the many interesting things on the website www.truejustice.org. If you are as interested as I am, you might give it a try. It is a lot to slog through, but it is fascinating, unblemished by the bias of American and Amanda's PR team. I recommend making up your own mind about things, instead of being led where an interested party wants you to go.Amanda was NOT denied water, the toilet, food. She was given all her rights. The Nazi's used to say if you tell a lie often enough, people will begin to believe it. Amanda never went to Meredith's memorial service. Why did Solecito withdraw his corroboration with her alibi, that she was with him the whole night. I think she is guilty as sin. I think she has to write a book and give an interview, all of which she will be highly paid for, because she has to pay her family back, and her legal woes are not over. She still needs defense for the appeal by the Defense to the Supreme court; she still has to answer for her calumny against her employer, and her parents and she are having to answer for wrongfully accusing the police of mistreatment. There were many witnesses when she was questioned, one of which was the interpreter that she was given. Can't wait for the appeal. With respect to the others that think she is innocent, and I did entertain that thought, I am glad to hear that there are others that question her innocence. I certainly do.

@Bessie Well put! It's nice to hear something from someone who knows the case; far from the two extremes of "she looks weird" and must be guilty or "down with anti-Americanism abroad" and she's a victim. I remember that on that site there were many who took the pains to translate and disseminate what was said in both* presses (for the good and for the bad). My main problem was that the American coverage of the case had–as you pointed out–this really ill-concealed ethnic bias (Italians are emotional, childlike, incompetent, etc.)

Bessie Smith and Erin: thank you very much for getting your fact straight. We maigh argue forever abour Amanda being guilty or not. Personally I don't know. People I know, writer and journalists, were a lot involved in the case and they said the believed the guys were gulty but the evidence wasn't enough, in general the case was messed up. I stick to my I don't know. What I know and what I see instead are american double stabdards. What I see are the lies you were all feed to: Foxy knoxy is the pet name her friends at school gave her. Of course Amanda, being a foreign citizen, needed a lawayer or a translator when interrogated by the police, but you can't attend a shool in a foreign country withouth knowing the language, even attending the same school she attended (University for Foreigners of Perugia https://www.unistrapg.it/). Secondly the kind of interrogation you say she have had never happened: Italy might be an old country with a fascist past but things changed pretty a lot, the country's justice system is on the contrary of Americas', very garantist, and if it fails, it at least doesn't take your life away. For your information, whatever Amanda said in those interrogations (she said she was guilty…) was later not take into consideration by the jury because she hadn't a lawyer or a translator, pretty barbaric right? And the DNA put next the food? WTF? Italy is not a third wolrd country, Italians might have smaller toys than yours but they have, countless Italian scientists and a couple Nobel prizes work, teach and research your universities and companies. When will americans stop thinking they embodie the one and only possible right standards? Do I have to show you how many non americans lie in american prisons for non existing processes and not just mishanded but totally fake proof? here's one, mister Chico Forti, facing a life long sentence. The Judge that condemned him said "“The court does not have the evidence that you, Mr. Forti, pulled the trigger, but I have a feeling, beyond every doubt, that you were the instigator of the crime. Your accomplices have not been found, but they will be one day and they will also meet your fate. Take this man to the state penitentiary. I sentence him to life in prison without the possibility of parole”! make your counts fellows, don't believe in stereotypes or what the media said.

She changed her story 3 times because she was being held and interrogated for HOURS and HOURS by The Italian police, and that was why she wrongfully implicated Lumumba. Obviously that didn't make it right, but a pretty serious miscarriage of justice went on in Italy and I'm amazed that so few people actually realize that was a seriously effed up investigation. It's nothing like Casey Anthony. Without a single piece of evidence the porsecutor concocted a story that it was a rape-murder-satanic ritual. We so often take for granted the American style of Justice that we just assume that foreign locations will treat people with that same code.

The press outside the US did a horrible job of turning the case into a sensationalized hatchet job. In fact, it ended up being pretty much accepted that the British Press screwed up. And I'll trust the Pulitzer Prize winning, highly respected Seattle Times over the UK Sun ANY DAY.

I lived in Italy for over 15 years, including the first few years of this case. The Italians screwed up basically every case that came up during that time – the Monster of Firenze, some mother who killed her son up north, the boys with the pistol at La Sapienza. The list goes on and on and even Italians always say that no case is ever solved. However, there is no doubt in my mind that Amanda Knox is innocent. I have read all of the facts and there's simply nothing to pin the murder on her. Just a bunch of people who think she's guilty.

Yah it seems to me tht a lot of people are basing their opinons because of the lifetime movie, it was very inacurate . But if you read about the case she was a target from the get go. They wanted to convict her at all cost even with little evidence.

What I didn't like about the Knox thing was that although she may have been innocent, there was an army of people sliming Italy and attacking Meredith's family. Many of the Knox army were part of a public relations firm's campaign, and on Huffington Post, for instance, there would be six posters making hundreds of posts within minutes of every story. They had their own jargon (calling people "guilters" and roboposting links to sites paid for by the family's lawyers and PR firm). It was atrocious.

Knox may well have been innocent, but she was also a psychopath and a parade of red flags. She may have simply been a sociopath unlucky enough to have a roommate murdered, but the Nazi photos and all the weird stuff? The story about the boys raping and murdering a girl? The sex on a train when she first arrived? the drugs? The arrest for a riot in which she was the only person arrested (in Seattle before her departure for Italy)? Always, the Knox army was there denying, denying, denying. It was a strange spectacle, the Knox incarceration. Then it ended, mercifully, and now … a dreadful book? I'm not reading it. She may be innocent, but she stinks.

The photo of Knox at a machine gun, which she captioned "the Nazi," is here. It's a British tabloidish paper, admittedly biased against her. Be forewarned. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1234298/Amanda-Knox-The-troubling-doubts-Foxy-Knoxys-role-Meredith-Kerchers-murder.html#axzz2Kk6XpJke

Rudy Guede is a thug and his DNA was found on and in Meredith. Amanda Knox is one of those people who may or may not be a sociopath and most certainly has a strange affect that some might label as smugness or even guilt.

I downloaded the translation of The Massei Report on my kindle a year or two ago but never got around to reading it. Maybe now's the time.

but the Nazi photos and all the weird stuff? The story about the boys raping and murdering a girl? The sex on a train when she first arrived? the drugs? The arrest for a riot in which she was the only person arrested (in Seattle before her departure for Italy)?

@ Barton – I don't know about all this. I do know about her drug use in Italy, but not about the other stuff you've mentioned. Do you have any links? I don't doubt you, I'm just interested. I think she's a very, very strange girl.

I think she probably did not kill Meredith. I think she is the most unlucky person in the world, a damaged girl from a chaotic broken home (whose mother then dated a guy who was almost a teen, causing much anguish for young Amanda) — and of course when the police scanned the environment, she stood out. And then she confessed, and recanted, and did cartwheels in the hallway during the questioning, and a variety of bizarre things, so the poor Italian guys thought they had found their murderer.

Links, I have none. I tried washing my hands of this sordid tale long ago, but it keeps coming back, and back, and back. Aargh.

Final note and then I promise I won't darken anyone's monitor with more knox stuff: The standard for a murder trial in Italy is "preponderance of the evidence," not "beyond a reasonable doubt." Thus, she was convicted because she *seemed* very much to be culpable. Americans lost their minds over this because the trial did not prove her guilt as a certainty, which is the standard we apply to our trials. Much anti-Italian nonsense was spewed by the Knox camp during this scandal, and I got hella mad because I love Italians, Italy, and I have a huge respect for national difference and the rights of a nation to conduct its justice system as it sees fit, not as America demands.

@Barton you went hella mad you said?I remember americans here and other forums talking about boyicotting Italy, as if the Country one sunny day decided it was time to strike over our allies through a young lady, then reading their reaction as "wtf civil rights!1! omgee!!1! why don't they do as we do? why don't they accept the help offered by the FBI????" and my strange sensation that for them a wasp girl couldn't possibly be guilty, and an american journalist in Italy saying things he couldn't have said in the USA (he basically said the prosecutors had their guilty and he was even black…), and the director of Vanity Fair Usa saying, when interviewed by a Usa anchorman, that Italy and Perugia in particular are medieval places where the police can do everything they want to you…such madness and a young girl murdered, Uk vs Usa and Italy and its supposedly efficiencies in the middle. That trial looked more a political, colonial thing to me than what it had to be.

I do feel sorry for the roommate's (Meridith) family. I feel that we, here, in the United States, do not have a clear, honest picture of what happened over there. Of course, we got a lot of 'Italy can't handle an investigation'.. If it were HERE, in the USA, our people would have solved it..(like Criminal Minds, SVU, etc would drop in).. It sounds like the Italian Police in that town DID make up their minds right away, happens everywhere.. and because of SLOPPY techniques.. no one will EVER KNOW who killed Meridith. I do understand why Amanda is doing the interview, the book. Yes, things are quiet, but, anything she does, you google her name, and there it is… so, why not make some $$$ in case she cannot make a living? I, myself, who read up on this case, the trial, cannot come to a conclusion on whether she did it.. I am religious, and I hope Meridith's family is too.. because God knows who did it and will be the ultimate judge when the Killer passes… and then, maybe justice will be passed.

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